Mengding Mountain is the earliest place in Chinese history where there are written records of artificial cultivation of tea. From Wang Bao's "Tong Yue", the earliest record of tea in the world, and Wu Lizhen's legend of planting tea trees in Mengshan Mountain, it can be proved that Mengding Mountain in Sichuan is the origin of tea tree planting and tea manufacturing. Mengshan Mountain is located in the mountains on the western edge of the Sichuan Basin. It is the transition zone from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the western Sichuan Plain. It is known as the "Tianluo" between Ya'an and Mingshan.
Mengding Mountain is one of the birthplaces of China's tea industry and tea culture. 1. As early as the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, Wu Lizhenhao, the founder of Mengshan tea, began to domesticate and plant wild tea trees in Mengding, beginning the history of artificial tea cultivation. The Tang and Song Dynasties were the heyday of Mengshan tea. It was listed as a tribute in the first year of Tianbao by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (724) and was used as a special item for the emperor to worship the ancestors of heaven and earth. It has been followed until the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for more than 1,200 years without interruption. Among the people, Mengding tea has always been regarded as a magical thing that can cure diseases. Therefore, Mengding tea with a long history is called "fairy tea", and Mengshan is known as the "hometown of fairy tea"
The fame of Mengding tea has made it the object of chanting by literati of all ages. In our country, the first famous couplet to praise tea is the widely circulated folk proverb "The water in the heart of the Yangtze River, the tea on the top of Mount Meng". Bai Juyi, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, sang in his poem "Qin Cha" that "the knowledge and knowledge in Qin are only the Lushui, and the old stories in the tea are the Mengshan Mountains". In the poem "Mengshan Dolomite Tea" written by King Liyang of the Tang Dynasty, he said, "I heard that Mengshan has a good flavor, and the depths of the cave sky are full of haze... If Lu Yu could be taught to be fair, it should be the best tea in the world." Wen Tong, a poet from the Song Dynasty, praised in his poem "Mengding Tea" that "Tea from Sichuan is regarded as holy, and the taste of Mengshan is unique". Great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, including Meng Jiao, Wei Chuhou, Ouyang Xiu, Lu You, Mei Yaochen, etc., all left many poems and essays on Mengshan tea. The poetry and inscriptions of the Ming and Qing dynasties were even more abundant, and contemporary poets and literary artists also left many splendid verses about Mengshan tea. The long history of tea has formed the unique Mengshan tea culture.
"Tea Ode on Mengding Mountain" - Zhang Changyu: Jiuzhou is a small area, and this place has long been known as "Yazhou"... So I looked at Mengding and sang about it, worshiping the truth and praising it: a blessed land for tea economy! The holy mountain of tea culture! The source of tea cultivation! Tea party fun! Wu Lizhen, surnamed Wu, given name Lizhen, nicknamed Ganlu Taoist. A native of the Western Han Dynasty, a figure in the Taoist school and a native of Yandao (now Ya'an, Sichuan) in the Western Han Dynasty. He presided over various temples in Mengding Mountain successively. Wu Lizhen is considered to be the earliest tea grower with clear written records in China and even the world. In 153 BC, Wu Lizhen discovered the medicinal properties of wild tea in Mengding Mountain (now in Ya'an, Sichuan Province), so he transplanted and planted seven tea trees in a depression between the five peaks of Mengding Mountain. "Mingshan County Chronicles" of the Qing Dynasty records that these seven tea trees "have not withered or grown for two thousand years. Their tea leaves are thin and long, sweet and clear in taste, yellow and green in color. The fragrant clouds in the cup cover them and do not disperse." Planted by Wu Lizhen His seven tea trees were called "immortal tea" by later generations, and he was the first person to grow and domesticate tea in the world, and was called "the ancestor of tea planting" by later generations. Of course, there are also historical records that believe that the Mengshan tea tree was created because Wu Lizhen went to Mount Emei to seek enlightenment, quarried in Mount Emei, moved tea seeds back, and planted them in Mount Mengding. Another theory is that Wu Lizhen’s disciple Zhuan Yunyuan went to Lushui to visit immortals. Tao, returned from mining in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau area.
In ancient Chinese historical records, there are many related records involving Wu Lizhen, the founder of tea, such as Wang Xiangzhi of the Song Dynasty's "Yudi Jisheng": "In the Western Han Dynasty, a monk came from Lingbiao to cultivate tea. Mengshan. "Sun Jian of the Song Dynasty wrote a poem about Zhiju Temple: "In the past, there were Han Taoists who came to build the buds of the stream and cultivated the new soil every inch of the mountain.